Brussels – There are those in the European Union who are starting to have had enough of the Trump administration. Sweden is certainly one such country, which, in voicing the government’s discontent with the current US president, is also speaking on behalf of others. “I am tired of unpredictable leadership that makes things difficult for everyone,” said the Swedish Finance Minister, Elisabeth Svantesson, on the sidelines of the Ecofin Council meeting. She is not referring to yet another tariff threat but to the US military operations in Iran and the resulting crisis. “We don’t really know what the United States wants from Iran; we know that what is happening comes at a cost to Swedish citizens and to everyone,” she laments.
If Europe is in a difficult situation, then we have Donald Trump to “thank” for it, and Sweden wants to set the record straight regarding responsibilities and the mood around the table. In her statements, Svantesson also draws a clear line between herself and the European Commission and its President, Ursula von der Leyen, who instead held Iran responsible for the crisis. Wopke Hoekstra, the Climate Commissioner, invited to take part in the Ecofin Council meeting, acknowledges that the situation is difficult and even more unpredictable: “My advice is to fasten your seatbelts, because the situation could continue and even worsen.” These are necessary caveats, he explains, because “no one knows exactly what the global economic future will be,” and consequently that of the EU and its eurozone. Admittedly, he concedes, “the data we have is not encouraging.”
Unlike the Swedish government, Hoekstra does not point the finger at anyone, nor does he lash out at the United States under Donald Trump. He merely points out that Europe is a continent with few energy resources and remains too dependent on fossil fuel imports; therefore, the problem is not the closure of the Strait of Hormuz but rather the structural weaknesses that need to be overcome. “In the long term, we will need more solar power, more nuclear power, and more interconnections,” and, therefore, “a system different from the one we have today,” he observes.
While the Commission is offering guidance on the way forward, the Cypriot President-in-Office of the Council of the EU is urging caution: “Things are changing by the hour,” Makis Keravnos, Cyprus’s Minister of Finance and President-in-Office of the Ecofin Council, noted. In essence, he confirms what his Swedish counterpart and the Climate Commissioner have said: things are difficult. That is why “we must be careful,” Keravnos warns. “It is not easy to make projections because everything is moving very quickly,” he pointed out.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
